Electric vise

ABSTRACT

An electric vice which has a tightening screw driven by an electric motor, a movable jaw moved by the tightening screw, a limit switch actuated by backward axial movement of the tightening screw for determining the tightening force, an adjusting bar fixed to the movable jaw and adjustable in length thereof for operating another limit switch to thereby adjust the interval between the movable jaw and a fixed jaw when the movable jaw is opened.

United States Patent Nishikawa [s4] ELECTRI C VIS E' [72] Inventor; Eikichi Nishikawa, Osaka, Japan [73] Assignee: Kyoritsu Manufacturing Company Limited, Osaka, Japan 221 Filed: March 29,1971

[21] App]. No.: 128,687

52 U.S.Cl. ..269/222, 269/224, 269/225,

2 9/240, 269/320 51 Int.Cl... Bzsb 1/02,]3251 l/18,B23q 3/08-1 [58] FieldofSearch ..269/l64,216,218,224-226, 269/240, 246, 222, 320 I [56] 7 References Cited 7 UNITED STATESPATENTS iisi it 3,704,879

[ Dec.5,1972

1,670,789 5/1928 Smitmans ..269/320 Primary Examiner-Wayne A. Morse, Jr. Assistant Examiner-Eugene F. Desmond Attorney-William J. Daniel v ABSTRACT An electric vise which has a tighteninglscrew driven by an electric motor, a movable jaw moved by the tightening screw, a limit switch actuated by backward axial movement of the tightening screw for determining the tightening force, an adjusting bar fixed to the movable jaw and adjustable in length thereof for operating another limit switch to thereby adjust the interval between the movable jaw and a fixed jaw when the movable jaw is opened.

3 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures 3,063,708 11/1962 Wollenhauot .269'/216 clamped.

1 ELECTRIC V ISE This invention relates to an electric vise which grips a material by moving a movable jaw with an electric motor.

Since the conventional vise of this type grips a material to fix it by rotating a tightening screw for moving a movable base manually, it takes time and labor to tighten and release the material, and yet the material is irregularly tightened as its disadvantages. I

The present invention contemplates to eliminate the aforementioned disadvantages of the conventional vise and to provide a novel and improved electric vise which may efficiently be used. j

t It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a novel and improved electric vise which may simply adjust both the interval between the jaws and the extent of its tightening force without the need for special tools and which may'also adjust the tightening force in response tothe nature of the material being It isanother object of the invention to provide an electric vise which may quickly grip the material even very small in size in comparison with the interval between the jaws to improve the working efficiency.

The other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompany ing drawings, in which:

F IG. 1 is a plan view of an electric vice constructed according to the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the vise in FIG. 1.

Reference is now made to the drawings, which shows one embodiment of the present invention. The electric vise of this invention comprises a fixed jaw 5 facing forwardly (leftwardly in FIG. 2), a base 1 having a compartment at the rear, a drive gear 12 driven by an electric motor through a reduction gear 11 in the interior of the base 1, and a following gear 14 meshed with the drive gear 12 through an intermediate gear 13 above the drive gear and fixed on the rear end of the tightening screw 15 and also constantly depressed toward the wall 3 of the base by a planar depressing spring l6. The rear of the tightening screw 15 is supported for limited back and forth movement on the side walls 3 and 4 of the base, the front thereof is threaded into the threaded hole 8 of a movable slide 6 which moves on the upper surface of the upper frame 2 of the base 1 and a movable jaw 7, and the rear end thereof is projected externally of the wall 4 of the base. At the rear end of the vise is provided a limit switch mounted onto a flexible bracket 19 pivoting around a point of attachment under the control of an adjusting screw 17 and a spring 18, which limit switch serves to stop the forward movement of the movable slide 6. On the top wall of the base 1 between side walls 3 and 4 is provided a limit switch 23 which is contacted by the rear end of the adjustably mounted projection bar 22 held in a given position on slide 6 by a set screw 21 in order to stop the withdrawal or opening of the movable slide 6. A control switch 24 is provided for switching the rotary direction of the electric motor 10, being disposed, for instance, at the side front of the base 1. Electric power is supplied by an electric wire 25 from an electric circuit (not shown) to the limit switches 20 and 23 and electric motor 10.

When the electric wire 25 is connected to the power supply and the gap between the rear endof the tightening screw 15 and the limit switch 20 as well as the length of the adjusting bar 22 are properly adjusted and an article 26 to be clamped is inserted between the jaws 5 and 7, the movable contact of the transfer switch 24 is switched to the broken line side in the drawing, and the electric motor 10 starts to rotate. The rotation of the motor is reduced by a reduction gear 11 to be transmitted to the drive gear 12, intermediate gear 13 and following gear 14 so as to rotate the tightening screw 15 to advance the movable slide 6 so that the article 26 is clamped between the jaws 5 and 7. Eventually the resistance of article 26 forces the tightening screw 15 to move leftwardly against the depressing spring 16 so as to operate the limit switch 20 and stop the electric motor 10. After the article 26 has been treated as desired, the movable contact of transfer switch 24 is switched to the solid line position in the drawing, and the electric motor 10 starts to rotate oppositely so that the tightening screw 15 is reversely rotated in the same order as above so as to withdraw the movable slide 6 to open the jaws 7 and 5 for removal of article 26. When the movable base 6 is withdrawn sufficiently, the rear end of the adjusting bar 22 engages the limit switch 23 so as to stop the electric motor 10. The distance between the rear end of the tightening screw 15 and the limit switch 20 is adjusted by changing the length of the adjusting screw 17 against the force of the spring 18. Thus, if such distance is small, only small axial displacement of the screw will actuate limit switch 20 to stop the motor and the tightening force applied to jaw 7 is small. Conversely, if this distance is large, the tightening force becomes large. The length of the adjusting bar 22 projecting from the rear end of the movable slide 6 is adjusted by loosening the set screw 21. Thus, if the length of the adjusting bar 22 is long, the motor will be stopped when the interval between the jaws 5 and 7 is small, and, conversely, while this length is short, the interval will be large when the motor is stopped. Though the rotation of the tightening screw is shown to be through the reduction gear and intermediate gear, drive gear and the following gear themselves could supply the needed reduction.

Obviously, the several adjustments described above can be made by hand without the need for any tools or special equipment. Also, the wide range of starting and stopping positions available for the movable jaw allow the vise of the invention to be set inadvance to handle even small articles very quickly since the movable jaw is not required to move to its fully open position.

' What is claimed is:

1. An electric vise comprising a base having a compartment at one end and a fixed jaw at the other end, an electric motor for rotating a drive gear through a reduction gear all disposed in said compartment, a slide supported on an upper surface of said base for movement toward and away from said fixed jaw and carrying a movable jaw cooperating with said fixed jaws, a switch for controlling the rotary direction of said electric motor provided on the base, a first limit switch for stopping the withdrawal of the movable slide, a threaded tightening screw journaled in a portion of said base adjacent said slide supporting surface for both rotary movement and limited axial movement toward and away from said fixed jaw, said screw having one end in LII 2. The vise of claim 1 including spring means biasing said threaded screw toward said fixed jaw and means for adjusting the limited spaced relation between said control surface and said second limit switch.

3. The vise of claim 1 wherein said slide carries a projection for engaging said first limit switch and said projection is mounted for lengthwise adjustment whereby the stopping point of said slide can be varied. 

1. An electric vise comprising a base having a compartment at one end and a fixed jaw at the other end, an electric motor for rotating a drive gear through a reduction gear all disposed in said compartment, a slide supported on an upper surface of said base for movement toward and away from said fixed jaw and carrying a movable jaw cooperating with said fixed jaws, a switch for controlling the rotary direction of said electric motor provided on the base, a first limit switch for stopping the withdrawal of the movable slide, a threaded tightening screw journaled in a portion of said base adjacent said slide supporting surface for both rotary movement and limited axial movement toward and away from said fixed jaw, said screw having one end in threadwise engagement with said slide, and gear means fixed thereon in driving engagement with said motor driven drive gear, said screw having a control surface on its other end, and a second limit switch supported on said base In limited spaced relation to said control surface and cooperating therewith to halt the advance of said slide when the slide encounters a predetermined level of resistance and imparts axial rearward movement to said screw.
 2. The vise of claim 1 including spring means biasing said threaded screw toward said fixed jaw and means for adjusting the limited spaced relation between said control surface and said second limit switch.
 3. The vise of claim 1 wherein said slide carries a projection for engaging said first limit switch and said projection is mounted for lengthwise adjustment whereby the stopping point of said slide can be varied. 